On this day, we remember.
Clear blue skies, a lot like this day in 2018 … 17 years after that horrific four-hour attack that would change, quite literally, everything.
We remember seven years ago, a display like no other from our friends at the Albertville Fire Department.
We remember the children in their classrooms, watching on television. Most of them are young professionals now. Many are married.
All of them know where they were.
We remember the heroes. And how they kept stopping the work in that huge pit as another was quietly removed from his temporary tomb.
We remember a hole in the side of our ultimate sign of defense in Washington, D.C.
We remember a field now turned into a permanent memorial to the courage and the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
We remember “Lets go!”
We remember the smoke. And the lights. And the buckets. And the dogs at Ground Zero.
We remember Dan Rather and Peter Jennings and men we trusted never stopping. Just reporting story after story.
We remember a President with grit and resolve; with compassion and empathy.
We remember no airplanes in the sky for days. And the quietness of it all.
We remember so much more.
We remember that United We Stand.
At least – we should try. For we no longer even agree on what divides us.
On this day, we remember.
And we will never forget.
The Albertville Fire Department flew a massive flag from its ladder truck the morning of Sept. 11, 2011 – the 10th anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.